Gods and Monsters
by treadingfire
Summary: An Apollo/Cassandra Modern story. When Isolde finds out she's the reincarnated Cassandra of Troy, her life gets turned upside down. Apollo sees her as a long wanted gift from the fates. She just sees him as a very hot and very obnoxious distraction. Now she must team up with him to save her world from his. Series of ONE-SHOTS for now. May become story later.
1. The Drawings

**Just an idea I've been bouncing around in my head lately. I've always been fascinated with Greek Mythology and I have a love/hate relationship with the myth of Apollo and Cassandra. This is not a reimagining but kind of a continuing. I'm not a writer really, I just do this for fun but any feedback is awesome. Also this is rated T+ for language.**

 **The idea is that Cassandra has been reincarnated in the present day and Apollo finds her. She still has her visions and now she uses them to help the world become a safer place (mortals still don't believe her). Her parents are historians and her father was always fascinated with Arthurian legends so they named her Isolde (pronounced IH-ZOLD)** **She's an undergrad going for Psychology and likes to pretend she's edgier than she is so she dyes her hair bright colors and earns rent money selling art to tattoo parlors, but she's just as happy curled up at home watching a rom-com and listening to T-swift.  
**

 **Apollo is just Apollo. Greek God of the sun and music. Fights with his sister Artemis a lot and likes to hit on females of all varieties. His world is turned upside down, however, when he visits the campus of an American University (to obviously scope out the ladies) and runs into someone who seems very familiar to him. _And then boom. Worlds collide.  
_** **Also, the world of the Greek Gods (Olympus) is in our world but separate. (think Percy Jackson but slightly more separate) Most of the Gods visit the mortal world from time to time and dress pretty normally but they are still set in a lot of their old ways.**

 **For now this is just a one-shot, but later I might expand it into a story or maybe even a comic. I think it would be fun to see Isolde/Cassandra's and Apollo's relationship unfold and see what kind of mess they get into. This one-shot is more serious but I think their relationship would be pretty playful once the bad blood between them is settled.**

 **So yeah. Enjoy! And let me know what you think!**

* * *

The neon lights from the tattoo parlor across the street gave the rain-soaked pavement an eerie gleam. City dwellers came and went, ignoring one another as they bustled to home or the nearest bar. It was late afternoon, when a certain blue haired woman turned the corner at Main Street and headed down this particular avenue. She walked past each store, her head down and the black hood of her jacket drawn up, avoiding any and all eye contact.

When she stood in front of the tattoo parlor, she quickly looked both ways before crossing the street. She came to a stop underneath the small awning of an out-of-business flower shop across the way and fumbled through a worn purple backpack.  
To any passersby she looked like she belonged in the urban world. What an outsider wouldn't know is that this particular young woman had a very special tie to a different world.

A world with gods and monsters.

.

Isolde clutched her drawing-pad closer to her body and leaned against the damp bricks. She watched the oil from the street mingle with the water and thought about possibly painting it later. The mix of colors was beautiful. It was a bit of whimsicality in her otherwise commonplace world.

Well, what used to be commonplace until _he_ came along.

She looked at her phone and sighed. She was going to be late again if he didn't show up soon.

"You summoned me?" A voice from her right said.

She jumped, nearly dropping the pad and emitting an awkward noise.

"Damn you, Apollo! You scared me."

He snorted. "After all I've shown you, I can't believe _that_ scared you."

"Yeah, well, after two weeks of knowing you, I have to say I've become quite jumpy. Thanks for that"

"You're welcome." The corner of his mouth peaked up ever so slightly. _Of course he would find this funny._

The self-proclaimed Greek God was of course gorgeous. He looked like a California beach bum in the best way possible: olive skin, curly sun-bleached hair, and a marvelous build. In all honesty, Isolde thought he could easily pass as a Hemsworth brother if he wanted to. All he needed was an Australian accent.

Isolde cleared her throat. "I have some new information. If you would like we can talk about it over drinks. I know a good bar about a block from here."

"Drinks? How old are you?" he asked.

"23. Why?" She raised an eyebrow

"No real reason. I was just wondering."

"You?"

He paused for a moment, his eyes focused on something over her head. "…Older."

"I don't know why I even asked," she mumbled sarcastically. "Fine. Lets just do this here, then."

Apollo shrugged. He didn't care where they talked. He just liked seeing her.

"Have you thought about my offer?"

"You mean the one where I come live with you in Olympus. Yes I have. The answer is still no. Now look at these will you?" she fished out a handful of drawing from her pad and handed them to him.

This was always the awkward part. She bit her lip as he studied each picture, one by one. Some were girlish and simple doodles of mythological creatures; others were drawings of monsters and demons from some sort of hell-scape.

They were all from her dreams.

And it was entirely his fault.

Apollo held out one page in particular, a charcoal sketch of some sort of sea monster made primarily out of teeth.

"You saw Charybdis?" disbelief colored his words.

She nodded as she played with a piece of her teal hair. "I saw it destroy a cruise ship. It looked like it was in the Caribbean somewhere. Or possibly Hawaii. I don't know."

"The others?" he pointed to various other monsters, including a few furies attacking a bus in downtown Chicago. For some reason, sometimes she just knew where the monsters would be. Other times, it was hazy. This time, it was only the Char-bis or whatever the hell it was called that she didn't know the location.

"The furies will be in Chicago, a few sirens and dryads in Louisiana, and from what I could tell, the Minotaur will be romping around in the Grand Canyon in the next few days. Tuesday I think."

He handed the drawings back to her and watched with some interest as she tucked them neatly back into her drawing pad. What Apollo didn't know was that she was planning on selling them to the tattoo parlor across the way.

Her "gift" not only helped modern society, it also paid some bills.

Apollo ran his hand through his blonde curls.

"It's getting worse and worse. I'll let Zeus know and tell Hermes to check them out. He's probably the fastest. See this is why we need you in Olympus."

Isolde sighed and tried with all her might to not roll her eyes.

"I'm doing it just fine here. I don't need to be by your side to use your most gracious present."

He gave her a look that she interpreted to basically mean 'well, duh'.

"But I want you by my side."

She shook her head "Whatever, Apollo. I need to go. We can finish this conversation later."

"You're my Cassandra." He held out a hand to stop her, to try to reason with her.

This made her blood boil every time he said it. It not only made her sound like some kind of property but then there was the whole 'past life' thing. For some reason, this time it set her off entirely.

"I told you, before. I'm not nor will I ever be your Cassandra! I happened to do my research and I have to say that's a pretty effed up idea you have of love, Apollo. If you haven't noticed, a lot of your love life has been unrequited. There's a reason for that. So please. Just leave me be."

"Isolde" the way he said her name felt more like a warning than simply addressing her.

"Seriously! Give me one good reason I should trust you."

"You have the gift of prophecy. You are the spitting image of your former self, besides this crazy hair of yours." He fingered a teal lock of hair that had come undone from her ponytail. "Even your callous attitude is the same. I know without a shadow of a doubt that you are her."

With each word he said next he stepped closer until he had closed the gap between them. "You. Are. Cassandra."

Isolde swallowed.

"That's not a reason." Her voice wavered, but she was not done. Oh, she was definitely not done telling him what she _really_ thought. God or not, she would give him the what-for. She pressed her drawing pad against his front and pushed him back a few inches.

"You also seem to think that if I were your Cassandra, I would come crawling back into your arms."

Apollo's stance became defensive. "I loved you."

"You let Cassandra die, you asshole! That is definitely not love. If my memory serves me right, Cassandra was raped, kidnapped, _and_ murdered on top of everyone thinking she was one loop short of a knot. At any time you could have intervened but no! You didn't. You just went chasing after the next pair of breasts that caught your eye."

He tilted his head ever so slightly and Isolde was suddenly struck with how beautiful and grey his eyes were: a perfect reflection of the rain-soaked sky. When the storm cleared they would return to a clear blue. "I regret everything that happened to you and all the others, but you are the one I have thought about after all these years. When I saw you in the library, I knew it was the fates granting me my desires to have you back."

This was all too much. Isolde knew she couldn't handle much more.

She wanted to laugh.

It wasn't the idea that she was tempted to give in, (Oh, she definitely had no plans of that) but that she kept feeling herself be pulled towards him in an almost ancient way.  
She knew she was starting to have feelings for this God of hers and that was the most dangerous idea of all.

"You need to leave" It came out weaker than she had hoped.

Apollo smiled humorlessly and shook his head. "You always were slow to affection." His knuckles brushed her jaw. She flinched.

"Please" she breathed, shutting her eyes. "Leave." She pressed her hand against his chest, trying to keep some distance between them. She could feel his heartbeat through the thin shirt he wore. She would never admit it out loud but she really wanted to see him shirtless.

"Not without you" He took her hand and kissed it.

Isolde hesitated. She continued to find herself both oddly repulsed and attracted to him. A few seconds passed as she stood there, speechless.

Would it really be that bad?

 _What if I actually go with him?_

 _Maybe we can work out some kind of dual custody thing. Maybe if I just spent weekends in Olympus?_

An explosive pain shot through her skull, cutting off all thoughts.

She doubled over,dropping her sketches into a puddle at her feet.

"Apollo you've got to fix this" Isolde cried through gritted teeth as another vision took over. _Lightning. War. Carnage. The dead. Screaming. Blackness._

Her head swam and she stumbled under the weight of the vision. Something solid held her up. When her mind became her own once more, she found herself in Apollo's arms.

It took her a few more moments to catch her breath. Apollo rubbed her arms until she recovered and then pulled her to her feet.

"What did you see?" he asked with some hesitation. He bent down and retrieved the drawing pad, drying it with a wave, and handed it to her.

Isolde grimaced and opened to a clean page to draw it all out.

"Its not good. Not good at all."


	2. The Research

**AUTHORS NOTE: IM BACK! So this little snippet is probably a day or two after Apollo first meets Isolde and realizes who she is (Cassandra. Back story explained in Authors Note of first snippet) and he goes up to her again. She still really doesn't believe that he is who he says he is...But that doesn't stop Apollo from trying. Also I see Apollo looking like model Justice Joslin with more sun bleached hair. Isolde/Cassandra looks kind of like Emmy Rossum.**

 **Next snippet whenever I get to it will probably have Artemis in it. ENJOY!**

* * *

Isolde's stomach dropped when she saw the familiar surfer-body-hot-as-hell-boy enter the library. The last thing she needed while studying for her Psychology mid-term exam were the delusions of a college boy who had smoked one too many reefers. She slumped in her seat and propped her book up, hoping he wouldn't see her. The pounding of her heart sped as she stared at the diagram of Maslow's hierarchy of needs and pretended to be deep in contemplation. _Don't see me, don't see me, don't see me._

Seconds passed. She glanced up. He was gone. Maybe he hadn't seen her after all. She relaxed a bit and sat back up, placing the book down flat once more.

She couldn't have been more damn wrong.

The chair beside her pulled out and her golden-haired Adonis sat down. Not Adonis. Apollo. That's who he though he was. The god of the Sun.

"Gah!" she yelped and let the psych book slam down on the table. The librarian who unfortunately had only been a few feet away reshelving old textbooks shushed her harshly.

Irate, Isolde flipped her off under the table before turning to the bigger problem now smiling beside her.

"Hello." Apollo said cheerily. His short tawny curls bounced slightly as he settled in the seat. Isolde was caught of guard, if only by a second, by how blue his eyes were today. Last time they seemed to be more of a grayer hue. A trick of the light?

"What do you want now?" she said through grated teeth.

"Just to say hi. I thought you might be in here studying. How have you been?"

"Fine I guess." She gave him her best "I'm-busy-so-please-leave-me-alone" look.

He ignored it, of course.

Time for the big guns. _He needed to go_. "Okay look. I know you think you're this Greek god and all and I don't believe you. We've already established that much. But say you were Apollo from the myths. What if I showed you how bad you are for me? Would you finally leave me alone I could prove that you would be doing the best thing by leaving me alone?"

"If you could prove it to me I'd consider it."

Challenge accepted. Great.

"Fine. You're in luck. I've been doing some research" Isolde fumbled in her bag until she found the right sketchbook and pulled it open on the desk. She looked cute when she was fuming. Apollo watched with some amusement as she tucked her hair, a faded cerulean now, behind her ears with both hands before flipping the pages over. Between scribbles of partly illegible writing were meticulous drawings of all kinds. People on park benches and fancy animals mingled with monsters of epic proportions. Those caught his eye the most. He _knew_ some of those monsters. Knew them by name even. Before he could ask anything about those drawings, however, she came to rest on a page with some scribbling near the top. Isolde looked up through her blue hair which had already fallen from behind her ear and narrowed her gaze before holding the notebook out.

"I think this will prove my point. Read this page only. The rest are personal sketches that don't concern you."

He looked down and began to read her messy handwriting.

It was a list…

Of lovers…

His…

.

 _Daphne: changed into a tree to escape after scorning you_

 _Marpessa: chose her kidnapper rather than you_

 _Castalia: dove into the spring at Delphi_

 _Cassandra: (NOT ME!) cursed her with visions and left her to die after she told you off_

 _Coronis: pregnant with your kid. Loved another. Either you or your sister killed her and sent the kid off._

 _Hyacinth: hit him in the head with a discus (frisbee?)_

 _Leucates: threw himself off a rock than rather be with you_

 _._

His mouth twitched as he read each name and the short description by them. By the time he finished the little list he was full on laughing.

The smirk that had graced Isolde's lips fell. She snatched the sketchbook back and held it defensively against her chest.

"What's so funny? These people hated Apollo. They left him because he couldn't leave them alone. If you really are him, you should be able to see that this" she tapped a finger on her research, "is not healthy. For either of us. Case closed."

"Did you get all that off of Wikipedia?"

Her brow furrowed. She was caught and she knew it.

"So what if-" her voice cracked slightly.

Apollo laughed harder.

Isolde tried again. "So what if I did? That doesn't change the fact that if you are really Apollo, _you_ are the bad guy in nearly every story I could find! You " _gods"_ were always meddling in human affairs and rarely did it work out in our favor."

"You have to understand, Isolde, that I while I am immortal, even if you don't believe it just yet, I have lived many different lives. It's not like I did all that within ten years. These few span _centuries_. I may have been the bad guy in all these stories, and yes, some of them are close, but I loved each and every one of those people. Also, Daphne was a flirt. The stories never mention that she started all of our problems with Cupid, not I. "

"But you had children with some of these people!"

"Yes, and so have many of the other gods in our time. Think of all the people you've dated in your life. I would guess maybe three to five _at least_ to be average for this day and age by the time you are in your twenties, right? You have to realize that after eons and eons, that number is a lot more than just a few and you tend to create a few young ones. It's just how it goes. You can't tell me if you lived for several millennia that you'd never have a kid, even if not on purpose. Even gods have needs and sometimes those needs cause accidents."

Isolde face palmed. Literally.

"What in the literal hell have I gotten myself into?" she grumbled to herself.

"Hey now." He reached forward and rubbed her arm, pausing briefly when she flinched against his touch. It sent a blast of memories coursing through his mind and he nearly stumbled back.

 _Cassandra with her brown hair filled with leaves and grass after an afternoon tumble, the way her bronzed skin felt against his own as they lay entwined and practiced her soothsaying, the way her hands shook when she finally rejected him for good, the way he hated her with a thousand shards of passionate fury because of it, her screams from Athena's temple as…_

He swallowed, bidding the memories away.

"You have to at least give me a chance to find out what this all means. Me, you, here. Come on, Cassandra."

She folded her arms and met his eyes with a steely focus as she leaned back in her chair. While all he saw was ferocity, what he failed to notice was how her black fingernails dug into her skin. The pain kept her from the rising panic threatening to explode. That would only trigger a vision and she _WOULD NOT_ have one here.

He already thought she was some long dead Trojan princess.

Isolde didn't want his belief to be strengthened.

"I still don't even know who you are. If you are who you say you are…well that changes everything I know about the world. And I still doubt what you say is true."

"Doubt all you want. You know this is reality. Just accept face as it is and find out what this is with me. We could do it together you know. You and me."

Isolde rolled her eyes. What a flirt he was. It was grating on her nerves.

"So who was your favorite one?"

"Lover? You mean other than you?"

Isolde rolled her eyes once more but added a huff before sarcastically declaring, "Yes. Other than I, Cassandra of Troy, the moon of your life and your sun and stars and all that shit."

He smiled wide enough to show white teeth. "Don't hate on Game of Thrones. It's a classic of Iliad-like proportions."  
She chuckled against her better judgment and felt her nails relax. "I never said it wasn't. Trust me I love it as much as the next person. Now answer the question Sir Sun God."  
He was quiet for a moment as he pondered. His eyes grew distant, as if he really could see who he was thinking about.

"I really did love Hyacinth. I was shook up for a long time after Zephyrus killed him in front of me. He touched my heart in ways that most could not and was one of the only people I could open up to."

Apollo's far off look focused in on her.

"And then there was you. You were the only one that made me forget Hya. Hell, forget them all."  
The tension resumed in a quick snap. Isolde's dry tongue felt like cotton in her mouth at the return of it.

"Stop it."

He sat a little straighter. "I forget myself. Sorry."

Isolde felt her cheeks grow hot as she let what she was thinking leave her lips. "You talk as if you still love all of these people."

"I do."

"When I met you...when you first bombarded me with all this...you referred to yourself as a womanizer who needs fixing."

He grinned. "Did the wikipedia search not prove that to you?"

"Its just that...how to put this correctly...you've loved a few men in your time. Hyacinth for example."

"Are you asking where my sexuality lies? Kind of a personal question for one who wants me out of her life. I am many things. Sometimes I fancy women, sometimes I fancy men. Sometimes I fancy both. Is there really any right way to put a title on love? I love who I love because I feel for them what I do. I have no reasons other than that. Nor do I need any."

A smile played at the corner of her lips as she traced the lettering on her psych book. "I like that."

"And right now I like you."

She roughly pushed the book away "Okay. Too far."

Apollo braced as her coldness returned. While her continuous rejection hurt, it was also like a high he could not stop riding. Being with her once more was a drug that he could not get enough of. With the gentleness of a mother he pulled her towards him and kissed her forehead. She pushed away but not as immediately as he expected.

So he still had a chance then… _good._

He would make her see the truth. She would know who she truly was. The fates had brought her back for a reason. They would figure it out together. And if he just happened to mend their relationship while they were at it, well, all the better.

"Well as much as I love our banter, I should get going. You have studying to do I'm sure."

"Goodbye Apollo."Ooh, dismissed just like that. What spirit she still had!

Isolde leaned her elbows on the desk in front of them and held her head up with her hands on her cheeks. He thought she looked adorable like that. Like the little rebel princess he had once known.

"One more thing."  
She pivoted so she only leaned on one elbow and cocked an eyebrow

"What is it now?" The exasperation in her voice almost caused him to falter but he was a god. He would not be cowed into silence by some punk human girl.

"Tomorrow is Saturday. Meet me in the diner on 47th for breakfast and then a walk in the park. There's someone you need to meet."

"Hal's Diner?"  
"That's the one. And if you don't show up by 9, I'll stalk you for the rest of the year."

Isolde huffed and tried not to smile as he walked away. "You probably will anyway." She called after him.

"True." He called back. "But indulge me this once."

As he left, Isolde let out a slow shaky breath. She didn't really believe him, but something about him felt familiar. And she had to admit, if nothing else, she found him pretty hot. She would meet him for breakfast in the morning, and then, she promised herself, she would never talk to him again.


End file.
